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I have had the joy of reading several other books by Sissy Goff and sharing reviews previously. The most recent book by Sissy Goff that I have read to review is The Worry-Free Parent: Living in Confidence So Your Kids Can Too. The idea behind Goff's latest book is that "worry is contagious but you can stop its spread." She has found that for every anxious child or teen, there is often at least one parent who is anxious. The Worry-Free Parent provides advice, encouragement, and tools to help parents make a difference in their own lives.
About The Worry-Free Parent
The 252-page paperback book contains an introduction, notes with references, and three sections broken into 12 chapters. Sections are divided into Understanding the Past, Help for the Present, and Hope for the Future. Many chapters are divided further into five key things that Goff wants to share with the reader, such as "five ways the anxiety of parents impacts the anxiety of kids" or "five things to know about anxiety and your heart." Each chapter also contains numerous questions for you to answer (space is provided in The Worry-Free Parent workbook reviewed separately) as well as "Worry-Free Takeaways," which are the most important parts of the chapter.
Inside The Worry-Free Parent, you will dig deeper into:
- How anxiety misinterprets and distorts our thinking
- How to understand our own anxiety so we can break the cycle
- How anxiety distracts us or makes us angry
- The way that anxiety impacts our parenting of our children
- The science behind anxiety
- Bible verses that will help calm our anxiety
- How to find and give ourselves grace
- And more
My Thoughts About The Worry-Free Parent
As a parent who is a worrier and quite anxious, I was very happy to see that Sissy Goff had written a book for parents. I have reviewed her other books for children and teens previously and found them useful and informative.
I was able to relate to a lot of the content in The Worry-Free Parent. I found myself taking notes in the margins and underlining key parts. (The workbook was also very helpful.) While I have read other works about anxiety and worry, it was very nice to read a book rooted in Christianity. Being presented with Bible verses to read and reflect upon or memorize is a great tool for Christian parents who are anxious.
While I found The Worry-Free Parent helpful overall, I did have a few concerns. One of my main concerns is how many times Goff references Enneagrams. Personally, I am not convinced that this is a Biblical way to view ourselves or the world. So, while I know it is the popular thing in many circles, including Christian ones, I would have preferred to see less mention of them. I was also concerned with the Bible version quoted frequently. For many of the longer passages, Goff quotes from The Message. I may not hold to just one translation of the Bible for my own reading, but this is one I tend to avoid due to my own research.
And finally, I was taken aback by the reference to Leave It to Beaver and Parenthood. Goff writes, "The older show is Leave It to Beaver, which you're probably too young to have heard of" (209). So, am I too old for the book's demographics because I remember that show and probably watched reruns when I was a child, and I don't know anything about Parenthood? I wish authors, particularly Christian authors, would be more careful when including cultural references, because – as Christians – we do not all hold to the same standards in relation to TV, movies, and music.
Now, I would like to highlight some of the parts that I enjoyed and found very helpful. When discussing help for our heart, Goff writes, "For us to work through our anxiety, we have to do the scary thing." And she continues towards the end of the paragraph that "we can trust in Someone who does bring comfort more than any amount of certainty or control ever could" (147). Since one of my worries causing problems is the desire to know what is going to happen and have control over situations, I found this section very useful. And bringing it back to God is wonderful. And she brings her points back to God a number of times. Goff reminds us to take care of ourselves and how to include Jesus and Prayer in those moments. She also shares a number of verses that speak specifically to our worries (just the verse not the passage of Scripture itself). We can look those up in our Bibles to reframe or replace our anxious thoughts with more positive ones and the truth.
I would recommend The Worry-Free Parent to those who are anxious parents themselves or who counsel anxious parents. Even with my concerns, there is a firm path to a Biblical approach to help alleviate worries and anxieties. I will be referencing this book for years to come.
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